The policy your contracts name, and the one people assume covers more than it does.
General liability covers third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from your operations. It is the line nearly every contract requires by name — and the one whose exclusions surprise people most.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What general liability businesses actually need.
Bodily injury
Injury to someone who is not your employee, arising from your work or your premises.
Without it — A customer who falls on your site brings a claim that lands directly on the business.
Property damage
Damage you cause to property belonging to someone else.
Without it — Damage to a client’s building during a job is paid out of your own money.
Products and completed operations
Claims arising after the job is finished or the product has left you.
Without it — Work completed last year can produce a claim this year with nothing responding to it.
Personal and advertising injury
Libel, slander, and advertising that infringes someone’s rights.
Without it — A defamation or copyright claim from your own marketing is uninsured.
Where general liability shows up.
- Contractor
The general contractor will not let you on site, and the one claim that does happen comes out of your own account.
- Landscaping & Grounds Maintenance
The rock a mower or trimmer throws through a window, a windscreen or a passer-by is the claim this trade actually files, and it is the one that needs no negligence to happen.
- Tree Service & Arborist
A dropped limb through a roof, a car or a fence is the defining claim of this trade, and the damage is done before anyone can react.
- Snow & Ice Management
A slip-and-fall on a lot you cleared is the claim, and without a snow and ice endorsement the policy simply does not answer it.
- Pesticide & Herbicide Application
Ordinary premises and operations claims still happen, and the certificate is still what a commercial client asks for first.
- Irrigation & Sprinkler Contractors
A line that fails, floods a basement or undermines a slab is third-party property damage, and the repair is rarely the largest part of the bill.
- Trucking
Anything that happens off the truck — at a yard, a dock, a customer site — has no coverage at all.
- Auto Services
A customer injured in the waiting area or the lot has a direct claim with nothing behind it.
- Restaurant
A slip in the dining room or a foodborne illness claim lands directly on the business.
- Retail
A customer injured in the store has a direct claim, and your lease almost certainly requires the coverage anyway.
- Janitorial & Cleaning
Damage you cause inside a client building is your bill, and no contract will be signed without the certificate.
- Professional Services
Ordinary premises injuries still happen, and every office lease requires the coverage.
- Medical & Dental Practices
Slips and premises injuries are excluded from malpractice policies and land on the practice.
- Film & Entertainment
No location permit, no studio access, no rental house will release gear without it.
- Directional Boring
A struck gas, fibre or water line is a third-party claim that starts in the six figures.
- Pet Services & Veterinary
Bites, scratches and premises injuries to clients — and the exclusion that removes the animals themselves.
- Assisted Living & Residential Care
Falls, wandering and visitor injuries are the highest-frequency claims in residential care.
- Tow Truck & Recovery
Premises claims at the yard, and anything that happens off the truck, have nothing behind them otherwise.
- Auto Transport
Loading damage at a dealership or an auction is a premises claim as much as a cargo one.
- Hot Shot Trucking
Loading sites, yards and customer premises are outside the auto policy.
- Box Truck & Straight Truck
Delivery premises, loading and anything off the truck sits outside the auto policy.
- Last Mile & Delivery Contractors
Package handling, property damage at delivery addresses and premises claims at the station.
- Dump Truck & Aggregate Hauling
Work on a construction site brings you inside somebody else’s project and their contract requirements.
- Local & Short-Haul Trucking
Loading, delivery premises and customer sites sit outside the auto policy.
- Public Auto & Passenger Transport
Boarding, alighting and premises claims happen off the vehicle and outside the auto policy.
- Bus, Limo & Charter
Boarding, alighting and premises claims sit outside the auto policy.
- Non-Emergency Medical Transport
Loading, securement and assistance in and out of the vehicle happen off the road and outside the auto policy.
- Taxi & Rideshare Fleets
Passenger boarding, the dispatch office and the lot are outside the auto policy.
- Allied Health & Therapy Practices
Premises injuries, and the limit a vendor contract names before you can be approved.
- Regional Center Vendors
Vendorization is conditional on it, at limits higher than most small providers carry, with the center named as an additional insured.
- Speech Therapy Practices
The limit the district contract names, before you can be approved as a vendor.
- Occupational Therapy Practices
Injuries in your clinic, and damage caused in a client’s home during an assessment or a modification.
- Physical Therapy Practices
A patient injured on equipment or falling in the clinic is a premises claim, not a professional one.
- Play & Behavioural Therapy
A child injured in the playroom is a premises claim, and equipment is part of the treatment here.
- Chiropractic Practices
A patient who falls in reception or is injured on a table is a premises claim, separate from the treatment.
- Concierge & Private Duty Nursing
Damage to a hotel room or a residence, and injuries to anyone other than the patient.
- Glass Contractors & Glaziers
Falling glass and falling tools are the claim, and a pane released from height reaches people and property well beyond the work area.
- Carpentry & Framing Contractors
Framing failures are structural failures, and the damage runs to everything built on top of your work.
- Hardscape & Retaining Walls
A retaining wall that moves takes the ground behind it, and the neighbouring property with it.
- Pressure & Soft Washing
Water and chemical driven under pressure into a building, or across a neighbouring car park, is third-party damage that happens in seconds.
- Mobile Mechanics & Heavy Truck Repair
Completed operations matter here — a repair that fails at speed later is your claim, not the driver’s.
- Roofing Contractors
A leak that presents two years after the job is a completed operations claim, and it is the claim this trade actually has.
What general liability operators ask us.
What does general liability not cover?
More than most people expect, and the gaps are consistent. It does not cover your own employees — that is workers compensation. It does not cover your own property or your own tools. It does not cover vehicles, professional advice, or the quality of your work itself. And it excludes property in your care, custody and control, which is why a business that looks after other people’s things needs an endorsement rather than assuming.
How much do contracts usually require?
$1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate is the near-universal default, often with additional insured status and a waiver of subrogation named specifically. Read the insurance exhibit rather than guessing: it will also say whether it wants primary and non-contributory wording, which is the clause most often missing when a certificate gets rejected.
Is general liability the same as a BOP?
No. A business owners policy is a package that contains general liability plus commercial property, usually cheaper than buying the two separately. If you have no property to insure, standalone general liability may be the right purchase. If you do, a BOP is usually the better one.